


The Stars Will Hear

by TheGodsWaitToDelightInYou



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Aliens, Amazingly aliens are, Gryffindor!Ryan, Harry Potter AU, How Do I Tag, I Tried, I would have them play bigger roles but I dont know their characters that well, K I'm done, M/M, Magic, Mostly Fluff, Ravenclaw!Shane, Sara Rubin (mentioned) - Freeform, Wizards, Yer a wizard, but trust me, dont take this seriously, except Harry Potter is not in fact in here, lots of shrieking, magic and technology i dont know how they would work, of course theres a (wheeze), please, something stupid i thought would be fun, they are young lads, truuuuust me, youll see - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 00:27:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15182705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGodsWaitToDelightInYou/pseuds/TheGodsWaitToDelightInYou
Summary: Before Ryan became a wizard he had a great many great questions. The world had many unexplainable mysteries and hidden corners. That is until a majority of it was revealed as the workings and inhabitants of the wizarding world.So, what else can he wonder about?It is not till a fateful night that he remembers: aliens.Between being a student, a friend, and a chaser turned seeker. Ryan searches the stars hoping for signs of life. Will the stars hear him?





	The Stars Will Hear

There is a flurry of snow whirling and twirling outside the Gryffindor Common Room windows. Inside, the scarlet and gold are awash with light. The fire crackles merrily but doesn't drown out the noise of packets of candy being opened and crinkled.

“Aw man.”

“Another Merlin?”

“You guessed it,” Shane tosses the card aside and it falls into Ryan's pile. 

Ryan brushes it away; he has enough Merlin cards already. They sit, slumped in the recesses of the couch; warm and feeling soft in a post-winter feast lethargy. It's late, with the addition of being the day before students head home for the holidays, they had just finished testing. The common room is near empty; sleep and home on the minds of those vacant. The scant few in the common room neglect to pack-up and turn in early like their counterparts and settle in favor for rounds of exploding-snap or soft conversations.  
In their own way Ryan and Shane are celebrating. This year hadn't been tough on them per-se, but school is school, studying is studying, and tests are tests. In fact, it is their first year, and neither knew what to expect. What with Ryan coming from a muggle family and Shane gleaning whatever he could from the stories his wizarding family told him of Hogwarts. 

Ryan flicks through the cards he already has and the faces of wizarding people he either thought were stories or never even thought to imagine were wizards blink up at him, smiling or stern faced. Dumbledore winks and that's when the fire stutters. In those brief seconds there is just enough dimness in the room for Ryan to look outside and see something hover in the sky. The snow is still swirling outside but he can see a light intensify, turn, then vanish.  
There is the snap of the game behind them and a chocolate frog near hops into the fire before Shane catches it. Everything is going on as if nothing happened. Even the Dumbledore in his card is cleaning his spectacles. All is well. Except for Ryan who is frozen in shock.

“Hey look, I finally got a---” Ryan can see Shane slowly lowering his card, “Uh, mate, are you alrig---”

Ryan gushes out in a breath, “An alien, Shane. I just saw an alien!” He’s pointing wildly at the window, but keeps his voice down in hushed awe, “Did you see that?”

Shane squints out the window as if the thing Ryan just saw is still there, “See what?” 

But Ryan is already pressed against the window looking in all directions before jumping to the next window, and the next, until he falls away defeated and falls back onto the couch, “It’s gone now,” Ryan whispers. Shane shifts closer to hear, “I saw a flash of light and then it...it changed direction or something. It couldn't have been a falling star because they can't do that sort of thing”

He doesn't look convinced, “Uh-huh.”

It was absolutely, positively, an alien. He knows it and cant help it if his voice goes up an octave, “I’m serious! Didn't you notice the fire went kinda funny just then?”

The near-escaped chocolate frog is struggling for one last jump, “I don't know... ” He snaps a leg and eats it, “Doesn't fire do that sometimes?” 

Ryan shakes his head, “Not this fire. This fire is magical. It doesn't just do that.” He doesn't exactly entirely know that without a fact but he has a gut feeling that that is so. Ryan was ecstatic, of course, to find that many of the previously believed mythical creatures were not in fact myths but very real. He had stuck himself in his room that entire day and read as much as he could of them. On top of having a curiosity for the unknown, he had always had ample respect for the supernatural. The discovery that he could actually interact and see the ghosts of Hogwarts had been a truly memorable experience, even if he can only remember part of it since he blacked out. So, that knocked out two of his big questions. But that still left space for aliens, he just hadn't thought of them since starting school but if those two were revealed once he entered the wizarding world...Why not aliens? 

Ryan sighs and gathers the cards into a deck before letting them slip through his fingers and tumble to the floor. They lay there in a puddle of colors, gleaming in the firelight, “I’m going to be the first person to communicate with aliens and then my face will be on one of those cards.”

Shane snorts, “Yeah, you'll do something extraordinary for the wizarding and muggle community and you'll claim it was all to be on a chocolate frog card.”

He wheezes, “Of course, and I’ll be finger-gunning in my picture with a tin foil hat.”

They both make faces and laugh.There are the soft patters of receding footsteps as some of the others begin to leave. It is late and the fire is waning. Ryan begins picking up the cards when Shane says quietly, “I think maybe I’ll do something extraordinary too.” 

He fights off a yawn and slumps on the couch, “Really? Like what?”

“Well, you can't be on a chocolate frog card without me having one too. We’re a packaged deal buddy. I hang around here so much I get mistaken for a Gryffindor.”

“But then your cover is blown when you say something weird.”

“I think you mean something highly genius.”

Ryan entertains the idea, “Alright, Genius, let's make this a race...A challenge.” Ryan is giggling but feels determination settling in. He's actually going to try if Shane does too, with whatever he's going to try and accomplish. They likely won't even succeed, they might even forget, but it could be fun.

“Oh? A challenge. Alright, whoever does it first wins everything.” Shane extends a hand to shake on it.

Ryan laughs, “Everything?”

“Everything. You'll get to claim the moon and stars as yours and I would say: ‘Hey, those are Ryan's. Literally anything.” 

It is late and Ryan does not have enough space for imagination, he can't think of anything at that moment, “We’ll decide when we get there?” 

“When we get there.” 

They shake on it. 

***

The summer sun is singing and parading down the streets of Diagon Alley. Shane feels the heat on his head and shoulders and is leaning along with Ryan and countless others against a window display, squinting against the glare. The new broomstick is a beauty. The first of its series: Sky-Streaker. 

It is all they talk about the rest of the day, as they go store to store to pick up their new books, and whatnot for the coming school year.  
Well, it's more all Ryan talks about. All the way up to the following day in fact, Shane had been asking about Muggle things and stories. Somehow they had ended up on the subject of sports. Although that did not interest Shane as much as the broken pieces of muggle history facts, he was still willing to listen. 

Seeing Ryan get excited made Shane eager to keep encouraging that happy energy coming off his friend through questions. They sat outside on the yard’s steps on a typical foggy day, a gentle chill offered crisp air. Eventually they came upon the subject of Quidditch, Ryan made exactly zero effort throughout their first year to hide how much he wished he could play too so when he asked if Shane happened to have a broomstick he said: “Do you want to try and fly it?” 

Ryan immediately agreed and unbelievably the sunshiny energy intensified. They go to the shed and Shane rummages for it through stacks of boxes kicking up dust and kneeing things in the dark. When he spots it in a dark corner, sad, and dusty from years of disuse his ears burn. He had not used it very often, not one for sports. He debates lying and telling Ryan he couldn't find it because he doesn't want to disappoint him. He looks out to where his friend is standing by the door. Face turned up to the sky, the mist like silver softening his features. When he turns to Shane with a smile, Shane knows he's doomed, and when it turns into a beam as he spots the broom, Shane's already dead. He takes it out with some trepidation figuring it best to warn him, “Look Ry, I don't think this one is going to fly so well. It might be a little dinged up…” 

Ryan takes hold of it and studies it as if he can tell if is bad or not, he shrugs, “Don't know till we find out.”

“I'll test it first.” 

With that, Shane is delighted as he kicks up smoothly into the blankness of mist. The initial response of the broom isn't too bad, he urges it higher and then that's when it gives its first of a series of complaints. He feels it ricket and jerk and all the bad things he was dreading. He does a few shaky turns and at one turn he accidentally looks down past his feet to see Ryan. His neck joins the heating party hosted by his ears as he can barely meet Ryan’s eyes. Once he's figured the broom isn't going to be any more agreeable he ambles back to the ground and offers it to Ryan. Just as he was about to say something along the lines of understanding if Ryan changed his mind he caught the look on his friends face. Ryan holds it like it might break in his hands, as if it were a pair of wings instead of an old Cleansweep, Shane got it as a Christmas present a long time ago, but seeing the way its being treated it seems almost as good as a new Sky-Streaker.  
Ryan suddenly shakes out of his daze, “Let's do this!” And with vigor he leaps and attempts to start flying but the broom won't respond by much. It floats before meandering back to the ground with an increasingly worried Ryan, “Did I break it?”

“Naw, you just need some refreshing on how to do it.” It is still foggy, not a blue and endless day. Regardless, it's the sky and it soars right above their heads: ready for the taking. “So, what you'll wanna do when learning to fly is…”

It takes some coaching and trial and error but Shane is able to get Ryan up in the sky in barely thirty minutes and in forty minutes Ryan begins his reign of terror. For, he does these crazy dips and turns that keep startling Shane. “This is amazing!” he grazes the ground with his feet and then knives the broom and is shooting vertically into the sky.

Shane shouts, “Are you riding the broom or is it riding you? You're flying like a crazy person!”

“What?!” The broom gives a wild tug and jerks Ryan in a different direction. 

“Do you think if you fly any crazier you'll crash into an alien?”

There's a burst of sunny laughter and he sees Ryan get flipped upside down, “That's a good idea!”

“That broom is fixing to murder.” And he is honestly starting to believe that is so. There's a horrible gnawing feeling in his gut as he keeps picturing Ryan falling from increasingly higher heights. He swears it's getting more and more erratic, “Ry, I think you should come down now.” 

He's floating just at tree level now and slowly descending, “Aw. Not---” and the broom bucks him off close to Shane's feet. Luckily enough he was already inches from the ground. Ryan bursts into a fit of giggles.

He looks down at his friend glowing from the adrenaline, “How were you not terrified of this? You're scared of everything.”  
Ryan jumps up and seems to consider his answer as he drags the broom out of the sky where it was still floating, albeit calmly, after it chucked him. “It was scary. But I felt I could literally handle my own fear.” He exhaled into a grin, “Thank you.” A breeze whistles by and he has the sudden idea Ryan would just float away. The ground hardly seems to be a good enough foundation for the freeness in which he's smiling. Shane is tracing the lines of Ryan's smile with his eyes and wonders how he's still even here. If the fog gets any thicker he could easily imagine him vanishing. 

Ryan's eyes glow incessantly at him and they make his cheeks warm. 

“What is it?”

Shane's tired, they've been outside for awhile now, besides dinner is wafting invitingly, “Let's go in.”

 

A week later there's a package on the kitchen table. It's long, thin, and triangular. He’s given a new broomstick from a relative far away. It flies smoothly and gracefully. He does circles in the air, turning and turning and turning. Thinking.

He doesn't think for long before he comes to the realization that he had already decided to give it to Ryan. 

 

So he does. He sends it by owl in the dead of night, for convenience (and the drama of it). He didn't want to send it in person for the fanfare there was definitely going to be as confirmed by the long long letter by owl he received the following morning. It's splotched by ink stains at the beginning, Ryan probably got a little too excited, before evening out into his regular handwriting as he wrote in all sincerity. When they meet again at Kings Cross, Shane doesn't expect anything in return maybe just a smiling happy friend and some glowing happy looks. 

He gets that and more. That day he gets an armful of Bergara and a beautifully joyous smile. 

 

Later, Ryan tries out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team and gets in as a Chaser. Shane is in the Great Hall cutting up a stack of pancakes when he finds out. He feels a rap on his shoulder and he turns to see a flood of golden light. The morning is beautiful and the sun dazzling so strongly he wondered if it were not the light that attempted to draw his attention. Shane blinks and draws a hand to shield his eyes to see Ryan decked in the typical Gryffindor scarlet, but it's deeper and trimmed with black and warm gold. “What do you think?” Ryan is holding himself proudly, arms lifted up by his sides, smiling and looking like...Shane struggles to find words and shoves a large chunk of pancake in his mouth so he doesn't have to speak. His cheeks burn (they keep doing that as of late) as he tried to focus on not choking rather than on how...pretty Ryan looked. 

Ryan waits and reaches over to steal a muffin, unaware of Shane struggling to compose himself without being too obvious. He feels an elbow nudge him and he coughs, “This is great! You have a support group now. This will stop any impulsive decisions to fly straight up into space!”

Ryan simply laughs and falls back into the light, walking away. 

Shane is startled out of staring after him by a snort. He turns to see Sara giggling and giving him a knowing look but fortunately she doesn't say anything. Mostly because she doesn't need to. 

What was that???

***

They are back in Diagon Alley, a little older, a little (wiser would be too debatable) taller. To Ryans endless frustration that really only applies to Shanes part. The guy keeps getting taller and lankier. They are shoulder to shoulder in the cramped cooing and cawing and meowing and ribbiting animal emporium. The shadows are blue-violet, a cool temperature opposed to the heat outside. There are eyes blinking all around and the noises of animals rustling and shuffling. Ryan can see an owl looming just above Shane’s head and they look much alike to his amusement: all slightly hunched over and beaky. Ryan wants to say something along the lines that Shane looks like he's in his natural habitat but he chokes on a sneeze and wishes he were outside. 

“Come on, Bergara. You are a lion amongst all these common animals.”

He's not really sure which kind of animal his friend is looking for or if he is looking to buy one at all but they've been in there just over half an hour and if anything it looks like they'll be there another half yet. At first it had been fun looking at all the cats in various hues of colors, to see the snakes coil and uncoil, the owls swivel their heads and bat their wings. But there are too many eyes and small noises.

Unbelievably, Ryan was able to creep himself out. 

“I wouldn't say that...You might offend one of them.”

Which is something he managed to do seemingly just by breathing, Shane says something and then moves away as Ryan enters a rather intense staring battle with a purple cat. There is the sound of an opening of a cage and the murmur of a voice behind the bend of a shelf. He gives the cat one more glance and he goes to see Shane holding something white, black, and softly breathing in the crook of his arms.  
It’s a kitten. Amber eyes blink and catch the dim light blinking in a color reminiscent to a pumpkin field. Shane looks like he hardly knows what to do with his hands, “Honest as a Bertie Bott bean, I think this cat has charmed me.” The cat purrs intensely and almost looks smug. 

“Are you going to get it?” He can already see the store owner edging towards them sensing a sale. Shane pets the cat gently and sighs, “I-I don't know.”

They walk out of the store, the bell clanging behind them. People walk to and fro, wizard hats bobbing and cloaks flowing. They enter the river of chatter and begin walking home. Ryan is very confused,“Why didn't you get it?” He could have sworn it looked like Shane was seconds away from owning a kitten. And Ryan knows how much he likes cats and cats like him. He always plays with them in either common room, and they amass towards him like a cat messiah. 

Shane shrugs and Ryan hates to leave it at that but does. Doesn't mean he doesn't think about it though.

When he is at Shane's place at the end of the day and he catches a glimpse of him handing the rest of the money to his mother as she ruffles his hair. He feels a rush of emotion and understands. 

 

The next day, Ryan goes back to Diagon Alley and he doesn't see the cat he feels a crush of emotion. That is till the owner appears with the kitten in hand. 

He delivers it in person, unlike a certain midnight gift he received a year ago (one that he's endlessly grateful for) and whatever trepidation he had initially felt---he didn't want to over step or for it to be taken the wrong way--- dissipated as they played with the kitten on the floor and argued names.

“Mothman, obviously.”  
“I don't see any red eyes. Besides I'm still leaning on Harry.”  
“Hairy? That's like the equivalent of calling it Furry and I feel very uncomfortable about that.”  
“Yeah, wait no...with no ‘i’ in it, like Harry.”  
“Harry?”  
“Yeah, see Harry likes it. He bit my finger!”  
“Um I don't think that would mean---”  
The lights flicker, “See that's divine intervention right there. Harry, it shall be so.”  
“O alright.”

***

They are fourth years. Ryan and Shane are in the Ravenclaw Common Room, and sitting at desks by the windows. Ryan, is tipped back on his chair, Shane's purring cat on his lap, staring up at the twinkling stars on the enchanted ceiling.Shane hums as he scratches away at a notebook he won't let Ryan read (it needs to be perfect before I show you), hemming and hawing at word choice, quill poised in the air at intermediates. 

Ryan lifts up the cat, and plays with its paws as he says, “I'm going to sneak out tonight.” 

“Hmm?”

“I'm sneaking out. I need to test something.”

Now Shane is leaning back in his chair, albeit more precariously, “Testing how fast we’ll get caught?”

“No, something else--” Ryan reveals a bag and a familiar looking contraption in its depths: the spirit box.

“---Merlin, not that thing again…”

“Yes, this thing again. I’m hoping to see that a theory might work. Anyways, hopefully I don't get caught.”

“If we do, it better be something good. If we’re going to get caught I want to be doing something crazy, idiotic, stupid. Like parkouring off the pillars, pillaging Snape’s potions cabinet, riding a hippogriff. He seemed to be getting just a little too excited at these thoughts, “Fighting the Womping Willow kinda crazy.” 

Ryan finds those ideas and enthusiasm just a hit concerning but he he settles on, “Wait, you're coming too?”

“Of course. If aliens actually do exist and you get abducted, I want to be there to see that.”

A handful of hours later, some “casual” (why are you making that face? that's not not sketchy) maneuvering out of the common room, some slipping into secret crannies in the castle (i'll tell you later), some speed walking down a dark tunnel (smells like cheese doesn't it?), then a door, and the night air. 

Ryan takes a deep breath and laughs, he had been steadily nervous throughout that whole escapade. Whereas Shane looked genuinely confused, “Quick question: why didn't we do this sooner? That was almost embarrassingly easy.”

He shakes his head furiously and takes out the spirit box, “If we had done that anytime sooner, I would not be here right now. I would have died from nerves.” Ryan begins pacing away from the castle but not too far, anyone could theoretically see them.

“I can see that,” Shane is striding alongside him, “What I don't get it is how you knew about that tunnel?”

He shrugs, “Some friends.”

If possible he looks even more bewildered and atouch impressed, “You mean this is just a thing you can ask any of our friends about?”

“Ghosts, man. Ghosts.” Ryan stops and Shane pauses close besides him. They are both craning their necks up at the sky, and a crisp breeze rolls through the high grass around them like waves. 

The moon is out and everything is awash in silver. Recently, Shane has been gaining some inches on Ryan, no matter how the other denies, and from how close they ended up and from this new angle he can see the thin shadows of eyelashes butterflying on Ryan's cheek. His face is lowered and tinkering with the box, he wonders with this light what color his eyes will be. Recently, there have been some coming to understandings for Shane, such as: he may or may not be noticing new things about Ryan and they may or may not make his heart twinkle like the stars Ryan always talks about. “So, what is this thing you want to try?” Ryan looks up, his eyes are dark and just a sliver of light warms them.

“I charmed the spirit box. So, you know how it goes rapidly through various news stations and spirits could manipulate it? I thought, if I charmed it so it's signals are boosted…” He trails off meaningfully.

“...It will be even more obnoxiously loud and annoying.” 

“I still don't understand what you have against this box. You know ghosts are real, and they can actually use it to communicate, so it's useful.”

“It's ‘cause it screeches. The ghosts find it as annoying as I do and now you've stepped it up and made it an extra special brand of annoying for your extra-terrestrial friends.”

“I like to believe their absence is due to your annoying mug. Anyways, this one won't be screeching, I tried muffling it somewhat so that if there is any interference that would be the only thing we would hear.”

“So it's quiet?”

“Or I may have broken it.”

“That's the best news I could have gotten.” Shane claps, with a bit more enthusiasm than necessary, but it's mostly to rile up Ryan, “Well, let's have at it then.”

Ryan switches it on and there's eerily silence.

“Just curious. What makes you think this will work?”

“I don't. Not really. I just figured if aliens might be interdimensional beings, couldn't they use frequencies like this as the ghosts did?”

“But what if they don't speak our language?”

“It's worth a try. Maybe they'd prefer to speak in maths, or in a crypto-language, or in images. We’ll just stay out here for a couple more minutes and then we should head in.”

They don't stay out there a couple minutes. They stay out there a couple hours. Finding any chance of sleep had slipped away as they turned to mindless chatter, directing the words at the sky and each other. The grass is a bit damp to sit on but that's a worry for later. For now, it brushes their shoulders and fans around them in waxing silver sighs. 

They are debating on the last time Dumbledore was clean-shaven when Ryan gives a yawn and Shane truly thinks on an idea he had been entertaining: asking Ryan to the Yule Ball. It's just about the right time to invite him if he wanted to. And he does. It's about all he's been thinking about. Not to mention, he's tried, several times. But each time something had happened. He opened the question the wrong way or at the wrong time and Ryan either misheard him or didn't hear at all. 

The last couple times someone tried asking Ryan, Shane thanks Ryan's obliviousness and the stars he had been there because all he had to do was give a stony smile and loom before the offender was outta there. He almost felt bad about that as Ryan had asked why he hadn't been asked to the Ball yet, he had looked so confused and a bit hurt. And Shane was about to do it. He was. But Ryan stuffed the remains of his breakfast and then dashed to Quidditch practice with a hurried “see ya.” 

Sitting there outside, with the sun due to rise, he felt the mechanizations of fate had aligned to set them up there. No better time than now, especially with Ryan fiddling with the spirit (alien) box before he turns it off.  
Shane breaks the silence, “Ryan,”

“Yeah?” He's turns switches it off and puts it in his bag.

“I've been wondering…”

“Hmm?”

“Would you---” Mrrrow. It sounds distant but it's stupidly distinct.

They look at each other in equal horror, “Mrs. Norris.”

Ryan peers around Shane and his eyes bug out, “ I see a light. We gotta go now. That must be Mr. Filch.”They hop to their feet and Shane tried to push the disappointment of the missed opportunity away but can't. He reaches for Ryan's hand, “Wait.”

Ryan looks down at their hands and looks even more shocked than before, “Wh-what is it?”

He notices how warm their hands are and thinks on how soft Ryan's are, “I wanted to ask you---” It's now or never, Shane glances at the stars and then looks back at Ryan before he loses this insane courage. But he stops when he sees Ryan's attention is not directed at him and how there is a growing amount of light starting to encircle them. “Nevermind. Let's go.”

By some miracle they run all the way to the Gryffindor Common room without a hitch. Shane realizes he wasn't supposed to run with Ryan all the way but he's too tired to test any more of this dumb luck he suddenly has and dash to the Ravenclaw dormitories. 

The sky is dimming outside, turning a paler shade of blue than night. They collapse quietly into Ryan's bed, and he tries one more time, “Ry…”

But Ryan's softly breathing and asleep. 

He doesn't end up asking Ryan to the Ball. Nor does anyone else. The day after that night adventure, Ryan woke up with a massive fever that lasted all the way up to the dance. The night of, they play exploding-snap on Ryan's bed, neither thinking on the grand party echoing in the castle. 

***

They are fifth years and in Hogsmeade. Ice and snow feathers the buildings in lacings of white. Doors open to different store fronts and waves of warmth invite the shivering customer or two. Ryan and Shane amble along the streets chattering away and bundled up in their house scarves. Both reveling in a day free of studies. 

Besides, there is something. 

Something. 

Something with a capital ‘S’ between them. Ryan has never been more aware of a feeling than he is whenever he is with Shane. It's a little odd, sometimes he'll catch a look and it'll be different than all the other times he's seen Shane look at him. Something that makes his stomach whisper in butterflies and think of fireworks. It's a little sweet, those slight brushes as they walk besides one another, closer than strictly necessary for warmth or closeness he's not sure but it's nice. Ryan sighs as they brush next to each other. 

It is a beautiful day to be cold. 

Then he feels something cold and wet box him on the ear. He shrieks (let's admit it) and jumps near bowling Shane over when he spots the offender: Steven Lim, the Slytherin seeker, debatable friend, howling with laughter. Face stinging, Ryan, grabs a handful of snow and begins packing it into a lethal aerial-instrument.

One second Shane sees a pissed off Ryan and the next his friend is lost amongst the snow and crowds. With his height he's able to see them darting down a random street and follow them.He ambles along taking his time of catching up to them, they can get soaked and freezing all they want, he's going to stay dry. The sound of a colorful expletive bursts from an alleyway and snowballs hurtle onto the street, there is another screech, then silence. 

Shane finally reaches them when they are pulling the other up out of the snow, exchanging jabs, and doing half-assed jobs at drying their robes with trails of steam pluming out of their wands. Ryan laughs at something Steven says then spots Shane nearing and says, “fat load of use you were. Where were you?” Ryan looks lovely. Eyes shining and infinitely happy, not like someone who was avenging getting snow to the face and ear. 

“From what I remember, you were the one who got hit by the snowball. Not me. And I got here eventually didn't I?”

Ryan shakes his head as Steven says slowly, “With that logic…”

Then, because Shane was lingering on Ryan's flushed and brightened face, he missed the enchanted snowballs forming behind the two of them and got a generous helping of snow to the face. 

With one ex-chaser now seeker, one other seeker, and one only having height going for him...It is a good brawl. Amongst those handful of minutes, Ryan and Steven who had begun the second round tag-teaming it had gone against each other leading to a free-for-all. That is till in a turn of events (that Steven really should have seen) Ryan and Shane made a spontaneous alliance that sent Steven running from snowball hell. 

In all sense of the word: Schadenfreude, they laughed and high-fived, “Did you see his face?” Ryan leaned heavily against Shane as they both fought to catch breath. Shane shivered at the proximity or the cold, he's not sure except for the fact that he suddenly craves hot swigs of firewhiskey. “Come on,” he straightens up, “let's go--” Something cold and familiar hits the back of his head and he falls. Dazed, he sees Ryan downright wheezing and then shriek as he pulls him down with him too.

“Hey!” Ryan actually has the nerve to look indignant. Shane can clearly see that because he had not fully foreseen what it would mean when he tugged Ryan down too. They are much too close, half a smiling Ryan on top of him. Shane tries to muster one himself but sighs instead, “Hey, yourself.” A hand loosely resting on Ryan's shoulder, he catches a slowly puzzled look as he hasn't reacted the way he was probably expected to and before anything could come out of it he lightly pushes Ryan up, “How about we escalate this and---” Did Ryan blush? "Set Steven’s cloak on fire? He's the one who started this after all…”

Ryan gets up and extends a hand, Shane must have imagined that blush as he says, “Yeah, just to help him warm up and all.”

“Friends being friends.”

“Exactly.”

“Plus I think this day can use a bit more shrieking.” 

“I did not shriek.”

“My mistake, forgive me: screeching.”

Ryan whaps him on the head but he's smiling. 

***

Everywhere Ryan turns is a sea of churning emerald and scarlet. But he's looking for one thing: gold. It's a bit strange not going for the Quaffle and letting the others handle it, but he has the familiarity of the being in the sky and let's a loose concentration take hold of him. It's like being submerged in water, this state he enters. Sounds become muffled and colors dim. The only importance being the intuitiveness of not falling. 

He's flying when he sees a flash of light way up in the clouds. He circles his way up before finding an opportunity where everyone's attention is drawn away and he propels upwards. When he gets to the Snitch, it twinkles and then darts into a cloud. Ryan follows it not seeing anything for seconds before inhaling sharply at the sight of something he's never seen before. For a moment he thinks someone cheated and enchanted a charm to distract him but he's at too much of a distance from the crowd. There's a sphere-like light of pale colors concentrated in a tight orb. Colors warp and move in a way much like light on water, the waves drawing in his broom. As he gravitates near it there is no sound, the sounds of the distant crowd have muted as if he has flown far, far, away. 

Ryan is close enough to touch it but the thing doesn't move away. Unaware, he moves a hand out and the sphere then starts to morph. He stares as a part of it starts to protrude forming something like a limb on a snowman. It defines itself till it stretches out more. The part close to Ryan flattens out and breaks delicately into seperate parts. Ryan’s finger twitches hard and he gives a small gasp as the phantom limb mimics his exact movement. 

It's formed an arm.

Out of the silence he begins to hear the buzzing of the crowd once more.

The translucent limb is close to him, close enough to touch. 

“R--”

The buzzing and stuttering sound is getting louder and near annoying. But it sounds lopsided to his ears, as if it is out of tune.  
He waves his arm and it copies, moving in a careful pendulum as his. 

“-An”

The noise. It's wrong. It doesn't sound right. He's filled with a sinking feeling of dread as everything blurs. He has a second to see another protusion in the orb, somewhere around the where his face would be before he's tossed into wakefulness. 

“Ryan. Will you turn that thing off? I'm trying to sleeep.”

There is the sound of the box and its buzzing in and out quietly. He had turned it off though? 

“Sorry, go back to sleep.”

It's still going when he slides out of bed, scoops it up, fumbles for a recorder, and leaves the dormitories.The Common Room is flushed with a dim light as the moon is brighter than usual. Ryan is clutching the box close to him as he settles down at the typical couch. The thing is humming and buzzing like a small animal, small high-pitched screeches would come at intervals, but no radio speech interference comes in. The box and the recorder are close together to the side of him and he stares out the window thinking of space and odd-shaped planets, brilliant nebulas, stars in water as he waits for his heart to stop pounding. 

The pounding in his heart is reminiscent of 

Flying. 

That feeling when the air brushes his face as he lifts up from the ground. When the stability of the ground falls away and he's able to sip at the cool air till it enters his lungs, bloodstream, heart. The broomstick perhaps is the conductor of his flight but he becomes light as air with each breath. Not falling is easy as it is intuitive. Up in the air it is quiet. Even when the world is threatening to break into storm; nature retains its raw silence. 

Ryan hears a break and a crackle in the box but it continues droning on. He shivers slightly and curls on the couch as a weight pulls on his eyes. 

He wonders at the box, at what may or may not be being said and at the coming day. Abruptly (or maybe not so abruptly) he thinks on earlier that day, on the Something. Delicate thoughts shape, delicate like snow. The sweet memories rest on his hands and melt as he recalls them. He slips into sleep as he breathes a question, a word, something but it is lost to the ears of sleep. 

 

Minutes after he sleeps, the room is shifted into darkness.

**Author's Note:**

> I dont know what im doing~!! I wanted to write this though even if I really should have worked on another fic~ O well~
> 
> This had the barest of editing so I deeply apologize.  
> If you enjoyed please lemme know. :) Im trying
> 
> This is the first part of two. Should be atleast.
> 
> Edit:
> 
> I'm keeping it as a one shot
> 
> Edit:
> 
> and, hey, thanks for reading :D


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